The M+G+R Foundation
commissioned this document from Lee Penn, a
Christian journalist and the author of False Dawn. miguel
de Portugal vouches for this
document, which
brings into
sharp focus one of the central messages that miguel must convey to all
- believers and non-believers alike: Accept no man-made
substitutes for the true Christ.

INTRODUCTION

Catholic
apologists magnify the Pope and the Papacy, saying: “The Pope is the
flesh-and-blood reminder” of the “Church and its teachings. He
personifies Catholicism – and for some this is personally offensive.” [1] Leaving
aside the bait-and-switch tactic (why would the Pope – not Christ
–
personify Catholicism?), to exalt the person of the Pope
ignores history. The Popes of the 20th Century were, for the most
part, virtuous in their personal lives. Many who preceded
them were
quite otherwise.

We would not bring these
historical events to light except for the fact that, in keeping with
the
End of These Times and in preparation for the manifestation of the
False
Christ, the Papacy and the Popes are being exalted by the Vatican's
Media Machinery to a level that we will not tolerate - equality with
God.

The following are behaviors which are not even acceptable
from an average human being, much less from some who have the audacity
to claim equality with God and demand the blind sheep to finance it!

DETAILS

The Papacy From
896 to 1048 AD

Even the Vatican’s apologists
acknowledge that the Papacy passed through a dark age from 896 to 1048;
they describe the Papacy of the 900s as a “pornocracy,” due to its
domination by the Theophylacts, a corrupt family of Roman nobles.The Papal misdeeds of this era include: [1]

Boniface VI (896): Died after about 15 days in
office – the second shortest Papal term of office in history.He was
elected despite having been defrocked twice
(once from the sub-diaconate, and once from the priesthood, and
without being canonically reinstated to orders) by Pope John VIII for
immorality. [3]

Stephen VI
(896-897): Exhumed the
corpse of Pope Formosus (891-896), tried the body for offenses
against canon law in the “Cadaver Synod,” and had the former Pope's
body
mutilated (the three fingers used for blessing were chopped off) and
the
remains tossed into the Tiber.This
outraged the population to the point of insurrection.Stephen
was deposed and strangled – and then buried in St. Peter's.

Sergius
III
(904-911): Jailed and
strangled his predecessor Leo V (903), as well as the antipope
Christopher who had overthrown Leo. Sergius
reaffirmed
the “Cadaver Synod” verdict against Pope Formosus, and bore an
illegitimate son with the Theophylact noblewoman Marozia; the boy later
became Pope John XI.

John
X
(914-928):In
order to gain the release of the French King (Charles the Simple) from
his imprisonment by Count Heribert of Aquitaine,
John
confirmed the election of the Count's five-year-old son as Archbishop
of Rheims.

John
XII
(955-964):Elected at
age 18, deposed for “perfidy and treason” in 963, overthrew
his successor after a few months, and “died at age twenty-eight – of
a stroke suffered while in the bed of a married woman.” [4]A
traditionalist
historian says, “The Lateran Palace was called a brothel in his day,
thanks to his diverse taste in lovers – both in terms of gender and
number.”[5]John
“did
not hesitate to consecrate as bishop a ten-year-old boy as token of his
affection, or to give sacred vessels to prostitutes.”[6]

John
XIX
(1024-1032): Won election
through bribery.

Benedict
IX
(1032-1045): According
to a traditionalist historian, “his personal life was so disgusting
(filled as it was with mistresses and rumors of incest and sodomy) that
one of the city's factions was able to rally support against him and
drive Benedict out of Rome.”[7]After
he fought his way back to power, he soon “accepted
a bribe to abdicate in favor of his godfather, the arch priest John
Gratian.[8]

Gregory
VI
(1045-1046): John Gratian
was deposed for having bought election to the Papacy.

The Papacy From
1455 to 1555 AD

·The Papacy
of 1455-1555 likewise earned infamy for its immorality.[9]As
is
obvious, various Papal decisions (those that apologists describe
as “disciplinary acts”) led directly to Protestant revolts in Germany and England.During this
period, ancient paganism became respectable in the Vatican; Curial
writing referred to “God the Father as ‘Jupiter Optimus Maximus,’ to
the
Virgin Mary as ‘Diana,’ to the Apostles as ‘legates,’ and to the
bishops
as ‘proconsuls.’”[10]

Callistus III
(1455-1458):Made two nephews cardinals, and made a third nephew the
commander of the Papal army.One of these
nephews, Rodrigo Borgia, was made cardinal-deacon at age 25, and became
vice-chancellor of the Holy See at age 26.This
posting
– and the immense wealth that the young cardinal was able to gain from
it – paved the way for Rodrigo’s election as Pope Alexander VI in 1492.

Pius II (1458-1464): “known throughout Italy
and beyond as a connoisseur, an historian, and the author of erotic
plays and tales.”[11]PiusII
made two nephews cardinals; one of these – who got his red hat at age
21 – reigned for a month as Pius III (1503).

Paul
II
(1464-1471): According to a
liberal historian, he was “among the worst of the
Renaissance popes: a vain, intellectually shallow, ostentatious
playboy.”[12]

Sixtus
IV
(1471-1484): Named six
nephews to the College of Cardinals; one of these would later become
Pope Julius II.Sixtus’ coronation tiara
cost 100,000 ducats – and this was just the beginning of his
extravagances.He “connived at the Pazzi
conspiracy to murder Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici at High Mass at
the Duomo in Florence.”[13]Giuliano
died, but Lorenzo survived, and Florence
rose
against the Pope's allies.In response,
“the pope placed Florence
under
interdict, and a two years’ war with the city began.”[14]

Innocent
VIII
(1484-1492): Won
election by bribery, and created a plethora of unnecessary new posts in
the Curia, auctioning them to the highest bidder to raise money.In 1489, he struck a deal with the Turkish
Sultan.The Pope
detained the Sultan Bayezit's fugitive (and rival) brother in Rome, and
the Sultan gave the Pope an initial payment “almost equal to the total
annual revenue of the papal state,”[15] plus
an annual fee of 45,000 gold ducats, plus the relic of the Holy Lance,
which supposedly pierced the side of Christ on the Cross.Innocent VIII made Giovanni Medici a cardinal at age 13; the
young man was
later elected as Pope Leo X.

Alexander
VI
(1492-1503): The father of
“at least nine illegitimate children,”[16] he
won his election by “generous bribes and promises of
lucrative appointments and benefices,” and soon made clear that “the
consuming passions of his pontificate would be gold, women, and the
interests of his family.He named his son
Cesare, at age eighteen, a cardinal, along with the brother of the
current papal mistress.He also
arranged several marriages for his daughter Lucrezia and often left her
in charge of the papacy, as virtual regent, when he was away from Rome.”[17]The aforementioned
papal mistress was Giulia Farnese, wife of Orsino Orsini; Romans
referred to her sarcastically as “the bride of Christ.”[18]

Julius
II
(1503-1513): The nephew of
Sixtus IV, and made cardinal by him at age 18.While
a cardinal, he sired three daughters.With
the
aid of “substantial bribes and promises of ecclesiastical preferments,”
he won unanimous election to the Papacy in a one-day conclave.[19]Julius
donned silver armor and led his armies across Italy
to
expand the Papal States.He
gave Henry VIII, the King of England, a dispensation to marry his
brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.(The
dispensation soon backfired.When Henry
sought an annulment from his marriage to Catherine, Pope Clement VII
refused.This led to the Anglican schism
of 1534.)Julius laid
the cornerstone of the new Basilica of St. Peter in 1506 – but made the
fateful decision to cover the construction costs by selling indulgences.In the bull Cumtam divino, he
also declared Papal elections invalid if gained through simony –
an ironic ruling, given the circumstances of his own election.

Ironically
,the sainted Pope Pius X reversed this decree.In
the 1904 decree Vacante Sede Apostolica, Pius condemned simony, but held that this would
not invalidate a Papal election.His
successors did the same.John Paul
II ruled in 1996 that “If – God forbid – in the election of the Roman
Pontiff the crime of simony were to be perpetrated, I decree and
declare
that all those guilty thereof shall incur excommunication latae
sententiae. At
the same time I remove the nullity or invalidity of the same simoniacal
provision, in order that – as was already established by my
Predecessors
– the validity of the election of the Roman Pontiff may not for this
reason be challenged.”[20]

LeoX (1513-1521): Upon his election, he
said, “God has given us the papacy; now let us enjoy it.”[21]He
continued the sale of indulgences to finance construction of St.
Peter's.It was
the marketing of this “spiritual benefit” by the Dominican preacher
John
Tetzel that caused Luther to post the “95 Theses” on the cathedral door
at Wittenberg in 1517,
starting the Reformation.King Henry VIII
publicly opposed Luther and wrote In Defense of the Seven
Sacraments; as
a reward for this book, Leo gave the English King the title of
“Defender
of the Faith” – a title that the English royalty have continued using
ever since, despite their schism from Rome.One
of Leo's cardinals was his nephew, Giulio de’ Medici, who was later
elected as Clement VII (1523-1534).

Paul
III
(1534-1549): While serving
as a cardinal, he had kept a mistress, by whom he had four children.Upon his election, the first two cardinals he
chose were his teenage grandsons.Paul “was
an ardent believer in astrology, timing consistories, audiences, even
the issue of bulls, according to the most auspicious arrangement of the
stars.”[22]

Julius
III
(1550-1555): “created a
scandal because of his infatuation with a fifteen-year-old boy whom he
picked up in the streets of Parma,had
his brother adopt, and then made a cardinal and head of the Secretariat
of State.”[23]Another
biographer
describes this youth, Fabiano (who took the name of Innocenzo del
Monte), as a “depraved … custodian of monkeys,”[24] and a Roman satirist of the time
described Fabiano as an “empty and feminine boy.”[25]Fabiano
fell from grace after Julius III died.Pius
IV
jailed Fabiano for killing two people at a banquet, and exiled him
after
his release from prison; then, Pius V removed Fabiano’s red hat.

The Standards
set forth by St. Paul for Bishops

Contrast the behavior of these Popes
to the standards that St. Paul
set
forth for bishops:

“The saying
is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble
task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,
temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no
drunkard,
not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and no lover of money. He must
manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and
respectful in every way; for if a man does not know how to manage his
own household, how can he care for God's church? He must not be a
recent
convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the
condemnation of the devil; moreover he must be well thought of by
outsiders, or he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”(1
Tim. 3:1-7)

Some Popes have been evil,
indeed. Their good
works notwithstanding (John XII, for example, supported the monastic
reform that began at Cluny, and the Renaissance popes commissioned
great
works of religious art), these Popes demonstrate that no earthly
religious leader “personifies Catholicism.” The
deeds of these Popes show that Gregory VII (1073-1085) was in error
when he asserted, in the Dictatus Papae, that “the
Roman pontiff, if he have been canonically ordained, is undoubtedly
made a saint by the merits of St. Peter.”[26]

Another part of the Dictatus
was
“the claim that the Pope alone has the right to use the
imperial insignia, or that princes shall kiss his foot;” these were
derived from the Donation of Constantine,[27] a fraudulent document.

The Defenders
of the Hierarchy Fail in Their Efforts

Defenders of the Hierarchy say that (a) even the worst of Popes never
formally taught heresy, and (b)
that the evil behavior of some Popes does not impair their authority
and accuracy as teachers of the Faith.This
defense fails on both counts:

1.Several
Popes have indeed fallen into heresy,[28] at least for a time, and one Pope was anathematized by an
Ecumenical Council.

Liberius (352-366): Initially opposed the Arian
heresy (which denied the divinity of
Christ),
and was exiled in 355 by the Arian emperor Constantius II.Under duress,
Liberius approved a semi-Arian creed that had been produced by a church
synod, and excommunicated the orthodox bishop Athanasius.The Emperor allowed the Pope to return to Rome
in
358.Only after
the Emperor died in 361 did Liberius return to orthodoxy, reinstating
Athanasius and urging all bishops to adhere to the faith that had been
stated at the Council of Nicaea.

Zosimus
(417-418): Initially
revoked the prior Pope's condemnation of Pelagius (who promoted the
heresy that men can be saved by their own efforts, without the need for
divine grace).After protests from bishops
in North Africa, including St.
Augustine), the Pope reversed himself and
restated Rome’s opposition
to the heresy.

Vigilius
(537-555): Vacillated
between support for orthodox theology (as taught by Chalcedon–
that Christ is fully God and fully man, thus having two natures) and
the
Monophysite heresy, which teaches that Christ has only one nature.(As with Liberius, coercion by the Emperor
explained some of Vigilius’ conduct.)

Vigilius
’greatest
crime had been the way he obtained the Papacy: he had aligned himself
with the dissolute Empress Theodora, posed as a Monophysite sympathizer
to gain her support, and went to Rome with her money to buy election as Pope.The clergy
there had already elected Silverius as Pope; the Imperial authorities
responded by sending Silverius into exile and declaring the Holy See to
be vacant.Vigilius won then Papal
election, arrested Silverius as soon as the former Pope returned to Rome, and exiled him again – leading to Silverius’
early death by starvation.As a
historian of the Papacy reports, “To all intents and purposes, one
Pope,
and he the son of a pope, had been deposed and murdered by another.”[29]These acts
raise a question: shouldn't posing as a heretic, and doing so with such
lethal effect, “count” against a Pope in the same way that
intentionally
issuing a heretical encyclical would?

Honorius I (625-638): Adhered to
Monothelitism,
which held that there is only one (divine) will in Christ.After Honorius
died, he was solemnly condemned as a heretic by the Third Council of
Constantinople, (680-681 – the Sixth Ecumenical Council).[30]Pope
Leo II (682-683) affirmed the verdict, saying, “We anathematize
…Honorius, who did not attempt to sanctify this ApostolicChurch
with the teaching of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery
permitted its purity to be polluted.”[31] The Seventh Ecumenical Council (787)
restated this condemnation.[32]Even though Honorius did not formally define his view
as Church teaching,[33] this event clearly shows that
Popes can be heretical.

2.“Teaching” involves more that putting orthodox words into an
encyclical with the appropriate canonical formulae.Jesus taught by his acts as well as with his
sermons.Any wise
parent, teacher, or manager knows that bad example can – and usually
will – negate even the most inspired or well-intentioned words
(or teachings) given to those under their authority.As the Apostle James said: “faith, by itself, if it has no
works, is dead.”(James 2:17).Thus, when
Popes lived evil lives – and yet more, when they pursued evil policies
using the power, resources, and authority associated with their office
–
they were teachers of evil.

Lord Acton, a Catholic historian in
19th Century England,
makes
this case for sober and realistic judgment of the behavior of Popes
(and other powerful men):

“I cannot
accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men,
with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong.If there is any presumption it is the other way against the
holders of power, increasing as the power increases.Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal
responsibility.Power tends to corrupt and
absolute power corrupts absolutely.Great men
are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not
authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty
of
corruption by authority.There is no worse
heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”[34]

[32] Decree
of the Second Council of Nicaea, which stated: “Further we declare that
there are two wills and principles of action, in accordance with what
is
proper to each of the natures in Christ, in the way that the sixth
synod, that at Constantinople, proclaimed, when it also publicly
rejected Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Macarius,those uninterested
in true holiness, and their like minded followers.” (http://www.piar.hu/councils/ecum07.htm, accessed 01/23/06).

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